One mom from Georgia is taking to social media to warn parents after her daughter got a chemical burn from sunscreen.
Megan Doss and her family were recently enjoying a day at the lake when she noticed something was not right. Just hours after applying a sunscreen that was marked safe for kids on her daughter, she saw that her daughter's skin started to break out in red, swollen blisters.
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“Two Saturdays ago, I thought C had a weirdly-, rapidly-progressive sunburn,” she wrote on her Instagram about her 3-year-old daughter, Caroline. “That day, we had applied/reapplied sunscreen as instructed and made her take breaks in the shade. So we couldn’t figure out why she was so much worse than the rest of us.”
Toddler Gets Chemical Burn From Sunscreen
Molly Stout is a dermatology resident with ABC News' Medical Unit. She says that Caroline appeared to have gotten contact dermatitis. Contact dermatitis is a red, itchy rash caused by direct contact with a substance or an allergic reaction to it. Molly shared with Good Morning America that oxybenzone, also known as benzophenone-3, is the most common cause of contact dermatitis. And it is frequently found in popular sunscreens.
Her toddler's skin is now healed up a few weeks later. But Megan did not want to move forward from this incident without sharing a warning with others.
“I’m not here to call brands out. I’m not here to tell you to run to your cabinets and throw away all the sunscreen you currently have. And I’m definitely not here to tell you not to protect your skin. I’m just here to say, please, do your research. Not all sunscreens marketed for babies and children are actually safe, and the most popular brands typically rank worst when you start looking into it," Megan wrote on an Instagram post.
Mother Warns Parents To Be Cautious About What You Put On Your Kid’s Skin
After what happened to her daughter, Megan has done a lot of research into sunscreen. Her findings have been eye-opening.
“It’s obvious these companies know this is happening (I mean, they’re being sued, you guys) and are unwilling to change the chemicals they use because it would be expensive and doesn’t happen to the majority,” Megan wrote. “This won’t happen to the majority of kids. But just because they don’t have a severe reaction doesn’t mean it’s okay for them to use, especially long-term. That’s like saying just because you didn’t have a wreck today, you don’t need to buckle your kids in anymore.”
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“For every item on the market, there’s a person out there who’s had a reaction of some kind. I’m not oblivious to that fact," Megan continued. "But using chemicals over and over again we would never go pick up from the store and rub directly on our kids just because they’re mixed into a popular product doesn’t make them safe. We can’t protect them from everything, I feel like this is something that needs to be common knowledge.”
Thank goodness this mother spoke up to warn other parents to be careful when looking into what sunscreens to use for their family! And every year, the Environmental Working Group puts out a list of safe sunscreens, just to keep parents and consumers informed.
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h/t: Cafe Mom
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